Photo by Erik Fraser – The McKinleyville players and coaches celebrate their Big 5 championship on Saturday.

By Ray Hamill — Perhaps the most impressive thing about this year’s Big 5 champions is that they could be even better next year.

On Saturday afternoon, the McKinleyville Panthers clinched their first Big 5 championship in baseball since 2019 with a comprehensive doubleheader sweep at Arcata.

The Panthers won game one 10-1 and took game two 10-0 in six innings, and this is a team that isn’t going to go away any time soon.

With the Eureka Loggers right on their heels and pushing them all the way for the past couple of weeks, a relatively young McKinleyville squad kept its poise down the stretch and rose to the challenge, winning nine straight games, including eight straight in conference.

Of the 14 players on the roster, four are seniors, all of whom have played key roles on the path to the championship.

But there’s no shortage of young talent on head coach Mike Dobrec’s roster, including four freshman and five very talented juniors.

Ann when all was said and done, they didn’t need any help on the way to the pennant. They took care of business themselves. 

“We’re going to be good for a while,” Dobrec said. “I’m proud of the kids. We did this ourselves.”

It’s a big achievement for the smallest school in the Big 5 and it is a well-deserved championship that this group of players have worked hard for.

“I think it’s huge,” Dobrec said. “The kids have worked hard and they earned it. It wasn’t just three or four kids. It was the whole team.”

And what impressed the head coach most?

“Their willingness to work,” he said. “They came out every day and worked hard.”

And they’re not done yet.

With the championship, the Panthers will receive the No. 1 seed for the upcoming H-DNL postseason Charles Lakin tournament, and as the No. 2 ranked team in North Coast Section Division 4, they should also contend for a first section championship since 2006.

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Panthers congratulate each other after winning game one on Saturday.

On Saturday, they comfortably took care of business in their conference finales, securing a third series sweep in four conference series.

In three games against their biggest rivals this week, they outscored the Tigers 27-6, and they will carry plenty of momentum into the playoffs with 12 wins in their past 13 games.

They struck early in game one on Saturday, scoring three runs in the top of the first.

And with senior pitcher Branson Dobrec and his defense in control all game long, that would prove to be enough, although they would add four more runs in the top of the third and three more in the fifth to end the game as a contest long before the final out.

The Panthers finished the game with 11 hits and held the home team to just three.

“The kids came in today and they took care of business,” Mike Dobrec said. “They were both team wins. We played defense behind our pitchers and our pitching has been strong all year.”

Junior catcher Riles Egbert, who continues to grow in stature behind the plate with every game, led the way on offense in the opener and finished 3-for-4, while teammates Bryce Sargent and Kolbey Stolpe each added two hits, as did outstanding freshman Hunter Carper, who has quickly adapted to the varsity level and has been a rock at first base all season long.

Another freshman, Rhythm Green, also had a hit in the win, as did junior Jackson Kelly.

Branson Dobrec was in commanding form on the hill and pitched a complete game for the win while striking out five.

With at least a co-championship achieved after the opening game, the Panthers were clearly in no mood for sharing and they came out even stronger in game two, ending the game after six innings and holding the Tigers scoreless for the first time this year.

Carper continued to impress at the plate and finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while senior Tyson Bragg went 1-for-1 with a solo home run.

Tenoch Tapia (1-for-3) and Joseph Forbes (1-for-1) each also had a hit in the win.

On the mound, Kelly closed out a very impressive Big 5 campaign with another dominating performance.

The junior pitcher allowed just four hits in a six-inning complete game and struck out 12.

The Tigers dropped to 1-8 in conference play with the two losses and their hopes of qualifying for the Lakin tournament now hang on a thread.

They trail third-placed Fortuna (4-5) by three games with three games each remaining.

It didn’t help matters when influential hard-hitting junior Anthony Ebert, who has been one of his team’s best players this season, was forced from game one with what appears to be a season-ending hamstring injury.

Ebert finished game one 1-for-1 with a double, while Charlie Mager and Ben Lukens each also had a hit in the loss.

Sophomore Tanner Kees got the start on the hill for the home team and threw four solid innings before giving way to Jonah O’Brien, who closed out the game.

Finn Warner got the start on the mound in game two and threw two innings for the loss, with Eli Greenway then throwing the final four innings.

O’Brien led the Arcata offense in game two and finished 2-for-3 with a double, while Kees and Greenway each went 1-for-2.

“I thought you saw two teams going in different directions today,” Arcata head coach Troy Ghisetti said. “McKinleyville is playing at a very high level right now.

“That team held their composure and I thought our team lost our composure.

“That’s a very good team. They deserve the championship.”

And with the way they’re playing right now, it might not be the only championship they win this year.